This is not the first time I have written a post about an animal described by Linnaeus
I never knew that such a bird existed until I stumbled across it while walking through Malmö, Sweden. I had just spent the morning trying out the local pastries and visiting the Malmö Library. From there, I walked through a city park known as Slottsparken. Within the park was a small lake named Storadammen. Here I saw many birds including this splendid graylag goose.
The graylag goose is found throughout Europe and Asia. It was formally described by Carl Linnaeus, who is Swedish. This is not the first time I have written a post about an animal described by Linnaeus, but it is the first one that I have written based on a bird that I saw in his home country of Sweden. The graylag goose has the scientific name Anser anser. “Anser” is the Latin epithet for goose. The graylag goose belongs to the family Anatidae which contains ducks, geese, and swans. There are two recognized subspecies: the western graylag goose and the eastern graylag goose.
Graylag geese are the bulkiest of the gray geese in the Anser genus. They grow to by about three feet long with a weight of five to ten pounds. The average graylag goose weighs a little over seven pounds. The wingspan of this bird can stretch up to 71 inches. There is some sexual dimorphism (differences between the sexes) between males and females. The males tend to be larger than the females. This is more pronounced in the eastern subspecies.
This species of bird is identifiable by its greyish brown plumage, darker head, and paler breast and belly. There is a variable amount of black spotting throughout the plumage of the graylag goose. The forewing and rump are both pale gray. This is noticeable during flight or when the bird stretches out its wings on the ground. There is a white line that borders its upper flank. They have wing coverts that are lighter in color than they darker flight feathers.
There is a variable amount of black spotting throughout the plumage of the graylag goose
Did you know?
- The onomatopoeia for the call of a graylag goose is aahng ung ung. This is used both on the ground and in flight. Goslings will chirp or whistle. Adults are also known to hiss if angry.
- Graylag geese are primarily herbivorous.
- This species of goose tends to lay four to six eggs in a brood.
- The graylag goose was revered across Eurasia. Several gods in antiquities were seen as graylag geese.
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